Northern Ireland's first minister Peter Robinson is facing renewed pressure after it was alleged that he and his wife Iris broke parliamentary codes of conduct for failing to report a £50,000 donation from two property developers.
Iris Robinson apparently raised the money for her lover Kirk McCambley, who invested it in a cafe outside Belfast.
The BBC's Spotlight programme also said that Iris Robinson asked McCambley for £5,000 of the loan from the late John Fraser and Ken Campbell, two locally based property developers, for herself.
Much of the evidence on the programme against the Robinsons was provided by Selwyn Black, Iris Robinson's former adviser, a former Royal Air Force chaplain. He said that while he felt sorry for the family they had betrayed the electorate.
"I feel that they have betrayed my trust ... my position was abused, my trust was abused. Their trust in the people who elected them in a collective sense was being abused.
"I was so angry that I was drawn into that situation ... but it doesn't negate they both knew the consequences and did nothing to address those circumstances," Black said.
Iris Robinson's then lover was granted permission to refurbish the Lock Keepers' Inn on the river Lagan by Castlereagh borough council.
The Spotlight investigation found that during meetings to decide on that application which were attended by Iris Robinson, the Strangford MP had never declared her personal interest in the project or how she secured investment for McCambley in 2008.
When the relationship broke down, the MP tried to force her ex-lover to hand back the money. The programme alleged that she even asked that £25,000 be re-directed to an east Belfast church run by Peter Robinson's sister.
McCambley, a teenager when he started his affair with the 59-year-old politician, confirmed that they grew closer together after the death from cancer of his father Billy, a well known east Belfast butcher and friend of the Robinson family.
As a grieving 19-year-old, McCambley told the programme that "she looked out for me and made sure I was ok ... she was there to help."
Iris Robinson was also accused of lobbying on behalf of Campbell over a commercial development in her constituency.
In the programme, Black claims that the relationship between the MP and 19-year-old had been sexual – a claim undisputed by McCambley.
Spotlight also alleged that Peter Robinson, who later learned about the £50,000 loan to someone he initially thought was just a friend of his wife, failed to report it to either the Castlereagh council, the Northern Ireland Assembly, or Westminster.
If the claims made by Spotlight are true, they would represent clear breaches of parliamentary rules.
There was no response last night from the first minister over the allegations.
A Democratic Unionist Party spokesman said last night: "Following allegations made about Peter Robinson in the BBC's Spotlight programme on Thursday 7th January 2010, Mr Robinson will be consulting his legal team on Friday."
Earlier Peter Robinson had sought to portray that it was business-as-usual after meetings with Sinn Fein and the Alliance party at Stormont Castle, as part of a move to break the political deadlock over the devolution of policing and justice powers to the assembly.
In a remarkable series of statements on Wednesday Iris Robinson admitted "providing financial support for a business venture" to a young man whom it has emerged was McCambley.
Her husband, in a press conference to a number of hand picked journalists, revealed details of his wife affair and her subsequent suicide attempt on 1 March last year.
On allegations of financial wrong doing, Peter Robinson insisted that he had always acted "in the most professional and ethical way."